McIlroy voted Europe’s best
Spieth shares royal company in new Augusta locker
Rory McIlroy has been voted the European Tour’s player of the year for 2015, winning the award for the third time in the past four seasons.
The 26-year-old Northern Irishman successfully defended the Race to Dubai title after winning the season-ending World Tour Championship in Dubai last month. He had two other victories, at the Dubai Desert Classic and the WGC-Cadillac Match Play at Harding Park in San Francisco.
McIlroy says he feels “very proud to have won this prestigious award for the third time.”
He says it is “always special, no matter how often, to be recognized this way.”
The former top-ranked McIlroy was granted special dispensation to play the European Tour’s Final Series. He had not fulfilled the standard membership criteria because of an ankle injury sustained midway through the year.
Spieth joins Palmer at Augusta: Jordan Spieth returned to Augusta National last week for the first time since his fourshot victory in the Masters. He saw his name on the permanent Masters trophy. He was treated like an honorary member. And he checked out the new Champions Locker Room. Augusta National has champions share a locker, and the 22-year-old Texan was curious.
“I walked up to see who I was with,” Spieth told Golfweek magazine. “And I share a locker with Arnold Palmer. So it was a very special moment there.”
Pain in the putt: Tiger Woods wasn’t making as many putts before his back surgeries or at least it seemed that way because he used to make everything.
He had a reason for that in his interview with Time magazine.
“When my back was bad, anytime I bent over, my whole upper body and neck would start to cramp up, and so putting was the most painful, and so I never practiced it,” Woods said. “It hurt too much. It’s just a matter of getting healthy enough to where I can do that again.”
Clubs collect dust: Brooks Koepka should be plenty rested by the time the Florida swing starts on Feb. 25 with his hometown event at the Honda Classic. Koepka will have played three tournaments during a three-month stretch. He missed the cut in Las Vegas on Oct. 23. He didn’t play again until the Hero World Challenge the first week of December.
He will tee it up at Kapalua at the start of the year and defend his title in the Phoenix Open in February.
“I love golf,” he said. “But not every single day.”
Making Masters cut: Fifteen players are expected to be added to the 2015 Masters when the world ranking is finalized next week.
The only tournament on the schedule is the Philippine Open, which will not affect the top 50. Lee Westwood reached No. 50 with his tie for second in the Thailand Open last week.
Leading man: Woods has been No. 1 on the PGA Tour’s career money list for all but four years of his career.